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Curia Regis Rolls
(1194-1199)The Curia Regis, king's court, of mediaeval England took cases from throughout the country, and its records are among the most important surviving from this early period. This transcript of the rolls for October to December 1194 and October 1198 to July 1199 were edited by sir Francis Palgrave for the Commissioners of the Public Records. Most entries have the name of the county in the lefthand margin.

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Clerks and Clergy in Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, and parts of Lancashire, Westmorland, and Northumberland
(1215-1255)The register of archbishop Walter Gray of York, containing general diocesan business, mostly relating to clergy. The diocese of York at this period covered all of Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, as well as Lancashire north of the Ribble, southern Westmorland, and Hexhamshire in Northumberland. The register survives as two rolls (called the Major and the Minor), in all amounting to nearly 71 feet of parchment. It is thought that a third roll or more has been lost, because the acts of the archbishop for the last ten years of his episcopate are missing, as are all the ordination and ecclesiastical discipline records for his reign. The then unpublished parts of the register were edited for the Surtees Society by James Raine and printed in 1870, with some additional material included in appendices.

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Dublin Merchants
(1256)In 1870 documents of the Anglo-Normans in Ireland from 1172 to 1320, edited by J. T. Gilbert, Secretary of the Public Record Office of Ireland, were printed in the Rerum Britannicarum Medii Aevi Scriptores series. These include transcripts of the Dublin guild merchant rolls surviving from that period, which we have now indexed.

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Inhabitants of Norwich
(1307-1341)This calendar of the deeds enrolled from 1307 to 1341 was compiled for the corporation by Edith Crosse (MacKinnon), indexed by Walter Rye, and published by the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society in 1915. They are set out chronologically, translated from the original Latin into English, giving the name and occupation of grantor and grantee, and naming the parish in which the property lay. Precise dates are not given, just the regnal year.

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Clergy, the religious and the faithful in Britain and Ireland
(1342-1362)These are abstracts of the entries relating to Great Britain and Ireland from the Regesta of popes Clement VI and Innocent VI, from the period when the papal court was resident at Avignon. Many of these entries relate to clerical appointments and disputes, but there are also indults to devout laymen and women for portable altars, remission of sins, &c. This source is particularly valuable for Ireland, for which many of the key government records of this period are lost. Clement VI was consecrated and crowned 19 May 1342 (the day from which his pontificate is dated); Innocent VI was crowned 18 December 1352 and died 12 September 1362. The extracts were made by W. H. Bliss and C. Johnson from Regesta cxxxvii to ccxliv, and published in 1897. The registers are almost complete for these two pontificates. At his accession, Clement VI promised to grant benefices to all poor clerks who should come to Avignon and claim them within two months of his coronation. As many as 100,000 are said to have come, and the register for the first year of his pontificate runs to twelve volumes.

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Inhabitants of Barlby in the East Riding of Yorkshire
(1379)The poll tax returns of the 2nd year of the reign of king Richard II for Howdenshire, the area around Howden, were transcribed from the original in the Public Record Office (Exchequer Lay Subsidies 202/69) and published in the Yorkshire Archaeological & Topographical Journal in 1886. In editing the text, the abbreviated Latin has been extended, and those occupations that appear have been put in italics. The normal tax for a husbandman or labourer and his wife was 4d, as was that for a single person; but tradesmen paid 6d or more.

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Close Rolls
(1447-1454)The close rolls of the 26th to 32nd years of the reign of king Henry VI record the main artery of government administration in England, the orders sent out day by day to individual officers, especially sheriffs of shires: they are an exceptionally rich source for so early a period. There is also some material relating to Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the English possessions in France.

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Early records of Wells cathedral, in Somerset
(1001-1500)Three early registers of the dean and chapter of Wells - the Liber Albus I (White Book; R I), Liber Albus II (R III), and Liber Ruber (Red Book; R II, section i) - were edited by W. H. B. Bird for the Historical Manuscripts Commissioners and published in 1907. These three books comprise, with some repetition, a cartulary of possessions of the cathedral, with grants of land dating back as early as the 8th century, well before the development of hereditary surnames in England; acts of the dean and chapter; and surveys of their estates, mostly in Somerset.

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Inhabitants of Cambridge
(1504-1635)Cambridge comprised fourteen ancient parishes, plus the university (which was extra-parochial), in the diocese of Ely. The church of St Mary the Great (as opposed to St Mary the Less) in the Market Place (juxta forum) has churchwardens' accounts surviving from 1504 onwards. Those from 1504 to 1635 were transcribed by J. E. Foster for the Cambridge Antiquarian Society and published in 1905. The two churchwardens were chosen annually: the previous year's churchwardens each chose another parishioner: those two then each chose three other parishioners: the resulting eight then chose the new year's churchwardens, the wardens of the Light of the Rood, and the wardens of the Mass of Jesus. Auditors were also chosen, usually out of the eight, to examine all the wardens' accounts at the end of the year. The churchwardens' accounts are largely concerned with the costs of repair of the church and its furnishings, and include the names of tradesmen and workmen. Each Easter a rate called Easter money was raised was raised from all householders in the parish, and additional rates are occasionally levied for unusual expenses, such as steeple reconstruction. These 'Easter book' lists give a complete list of householders for the parish, excepting the poor. The church's income also included the rents from some houses in the parish, and the names of the tenants appear. The offices of the Light of the Rood and the Mass of Jesus were abolished during the Reformation. The accounts of the Light of the Rood, i. e., for candles burnt before the crucifix, often include a list of sums received for funerary diriges (dirges) for the year, from which the year of death of the more prosperous parishioners can be traced in this early period.